Audianism, or Anthropomorphism, was a sect of Christians in the 4th century in Syria and the Pontic–Caspian steppe, named after its founder Audius or Audaeus,[1] who interpreted the text of the First Epistle to Timothy 3:16 to mean that God created humanity in his image in a literal physical sense.
[5] Roman Emperors Constantine I the Great and Theodosius I legislated against the Audians, but the sect was still practicing quartodecimanism in Syrian Antioch in the 380s.
The Church Father Theodoret wrote on the belief the following, as Chapter IX of his Ecclesiastical History (Book IV), titled "Of the heresy of the Audiani": The illustrious emperor thus took heed of the apostolic decrees, but Audaeus, a Syrian alike in race and in speech, appeared at that time as an inventor of new decrees.
By an eclectic process he adopted some of the Manichean doctrines of Manes and denied that the God of the universe is creator of either fire or darkness.
The plea is however an impudent one, and the natural result of Pharisaic teaching, for the Pharisees accused the Physician of souls and bodies in their question to the holy Apostles "How is it that your Master eateth with publicans and sinners?"
[11] Their anthropomorphism was "metaphorical", i.e. centered upon a purely mental image, and not upon a physically concrete representation of God.